


Wisteria

by KurooCrow



Category: Tokyo Ghoul
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Blood and Gore, Cannibalism, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Ghoul OC - Freeform, Reincarnation, Self-Insert OC, but her memory isnt the greatest, oc is trying her best, that means cannibalism guys
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-20
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-18 19:42:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 14,208
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28872507
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KurooCrow/pseuds/KurooCrow
Summary: The same way she knows a language she never studied, the sight of a city she’s never seen, the taste of a cake she’s never eaten- she knows that boy. Knows him from the pages of a book, from a screen.It’s a surprise she remembers anything of it at all. But now that she’s thinking of it- things line up. It’s a wonder she didn’t take one look at her sister and realize immediately, but- Rize didn’t have a twin in that story.So what is Yume doing here?… And didn’t Kaneki have white hair?
Relationships: No Romantic Relationship(s), Not sure yet
Comments: 6
Kudos: 34





	1. Bloom

**Author's Note:**

> Ya'll know the drill, its another self insert lets go bois,,, I saw one (1) clip on youtube and here we are. Did I finish reading the manga? No <3\. Do I know what's going on? No <3\. I have general ideas about where this is going but its also got a mind of its own so,,, it'll be a wild ride :)

_ “In recent events, two students have been rushed to the hospital after an accident at a construction site in the 20th ward. Their current condition is unknown. Hirabayashi Yuji, the owner of the construction company working on the site, has denied giving a comment on the situation. More at 11.  _

Tuning out the news, Fujisaki Yume rolls her neck with a satisfying series of pops and turns off the TV. There’s a thump from the floor above, and she ignores it with practiced ease. Her apartment is shitty and small, but it’s a roof over her head and a place to sleep at night. It’s enough. 

Stepping around the pile of books next to the couch, Yume makes her way to the kitchen. Perhaps… she opens the fridge and sighs at what she sees. One lone package sits on the shelf. The smell is terrible. Unfortunately, the meat spoiled while she was gone for several weeks. Nothing for it, she supposes. 

It’s time to go hunting. 

—

With a wet  _ squelch _ the ghoul’s eye pops between her fingers. His screaming is loud enough to wake the dead, but they’re far enough out that it’ll take a while for anyone to investigate. 

“Shh- shh- that’s good. Be quiet and I won’t rip your tongue out. I’ll just wait for it to grow back before asking again, and I don’t think you want that. Might as well answer me now.” 

The man whimpers and wisely doesn’t scream again, eye slowly regrowing. 

“Now. Where are the rest of you rats holed up? The truth please.” She pushes her mask up and smiles, one of her nice ones. By the expression on his face, he doesn’t agree. 

“We- we! We meet up somewhere new each time! We’re just muscle. We don’t get to know shit like that! Please!” He cries. 

“Well then. How disappointing.” She sighs. He looks at her and squeaks. 

“But- but I can tell you our next meeting place! It’s in the 13th ward, Yamate tunnel! Next week Tuesday, at- at midnight. I- I can show you!” He stutters out, panicked.

“Hmm. I think I can find my way.” 

“Then you’ll- you’ll let me go, right?” He asks, giving a nervous smile.

Yume runs a hand down his jaw and his breath hitches. “Of course not.” She croons, kagune forming behind her in a red arc. 

“Oh fuck-“ 

His head comes off in a spray of blood. 

Yume absently licks the blood off her lips, grimacing at the taste. She’s almost finished bundling up his thighs to take home, chewing on a forearm, when there’s a startled gasp from the opening of the alleyway. Yume pulls her mask back over her face and turns to look- there's a human woman with a hand pressed over her mouth, trembling in the orange glow of the street lamp. At the sight of her mask, kakugan blazing, the woman yelps and stumbles backwards. 

Yume holds back a sigh and makes a shooing motion with her hand. When the woman doesn’t move, she growls and uses one of her tails to flick blood at the lady. That finally jolts her out of her panic and she runs away, screaming. 

Just what she needed, a fucking witness. But Yume didn’t want to kill her if she didn’t need to. 

She wipes her hands off on the ghoul’s pants and sets off to find some water to wash up with. She wants to be clean before beginning her trek back to the 20th ward and the warmth of her apartment. 

—

Almost two months of investigation and she finally has a fraction of a lead on Aogiri Tree. Sure, she can find members left and right. But the upper echelons of the group are elusive at best, not to even  _ mention _ the leader. Ghouls whisper that it’s run by the One Eyed King but she’ll believe  _ that  _ when she sees it. No- whoever these ghouls are, they’re certainly good at maintaining opsec. 

She would be impressed if she wasn’t so damned frustrated by it. 

And this is what she was  _ trained  _ for, damn it! She shouldn’t be foiled by some amateur startup group, she used to do much harder assignments for fucks sake. 

Either way, she ruffles her cropped purple hair in frustration. She’s made her way to the meeting spot, perhaps 20 meters away, but she can’t get closer without giving away her position. A group of maybe 10 ghouls in white suits are mingling with some in red robes. They seem to be waiting for something, tension palpable between the two groups. The underground transit system is a perfect place for a covert meeting- the tunnels might amplify sounds but that also means the roar of the nearby subway drowns out most of their conversation from this distance. 

She catches snatches, though, and what she hears isn’t reassuring. 

“- doves have gotten cockier. I say we-“

“- did you hear? That wildcard Black Rabbit is making waves.” 

“I heard Grave Robber got another one. Ha!” 

Suddenly, a huge brute of a ghoul emerges from the shadows and Yume has to hold back a curse. The infamous Jason. Of course. She should have known as soon as she saw those white suits. Behind Jason an unknown figure in a white cloak steps forward. His white hair and red mask are a steep contrast. 

Yume growls and begins to back away. Even she knows when she’s in too deep. 

Time to cut her losses and go home. 

—

Anteiku is bustling when she enters. She sends a nod at Koma and heads to the meeting room upstairs. Yoshimura is already there when she arrives, looking out the window with his hands clasped behind his back. 

“Anything new?” He asks, voice soft. 

Yume frowns, and sits down at the table before replying. “It’s bad, old man. Every member I’ve found has been nothing but small fry. Getting any concrete information is like pulling teeth. The closest I got was on Tuesday. I saw Yamori. The White Suits are part of the Tree.”

Yoshimura doesn’t even turn around. 

Hesitating, she continues, “I did hear… you won’t like this.” 

That finally gets a reaction out of him. He slowly turns from the window and opens his eyes. “Tell me.”

“It’s... there’s talk about a Black Rabbit making his way up the ranks.” 

Yoshimura’s mouth thins. 

Suddenly, something clatters behind them and the scent of coffee that permeates the building gets even stronger. 

“Rize…?”

Yume twists to look at the boy who spoke. Pale, one wide eye, the other hidden behind an eyepatch. Hunched shoulders, one hand grasping his shirt so tight she can see it trembling. There’s a cup of coffee spilled on the floorboards. He looks like he’s seen a ghost. 

Ahh. There’s something familiar about him, an itch at the back of her mind that says to sit up and pay attention. 

The old man sighs and steps forward. “Ken, this is Fujisaki Yume. Rize’s sister. Yume, this is Kaneki Ken. He was with Rize when she died and was given Rize’s kakuhou.” 

While Yume tries to remember where she heard the name Kaneki Ken before, Kaneki jolts and looks ready to bolt. Just as she thinks he’ll run, he suddenly throws himself into a bow. 

“I’m sorry!” 

What.

“I’m the reason your sister is dead!” He stutters, before continuing much quieter, “granted, she was trying to kill me at the time…” 

“Kid. Please. Stand up. Believe me, if I had realized Rize was in the 20th ward, I’d have killed her myself.” Yume says.

Kaneki straightens with a startled look. “But- but! She was your family! Surely-” 

“Trust me, we may have been twins but there was no love lost between us.” She interrupts. “The only thing I’m sorry about is what happened to  _ you _ because of my kin. If I had been here, I would have taken care of her long before she even met you. But I was outside the ward, and for that I am sorry.” 

Kaneki looks at her, slack jawed, eyes running over her features before stopping on her eyes. Whatever he sees there causes him to slump against the doorframe. She can’t tell what emotion he’s feeling, but he looks exhausted. 

Suddenly, he perks up, a spark in his eye. “If you’re Rize’s twin, t-then I’m older than you! No- no more of that ‘kid’ stuff!”

Yume looks him up and down. Weak arms, stuttering, idealism and all. She has the strange urge to ruffle his hair.

“Nope, you’re a kid. Tiny. Baby ghoul. Get used to it, little man.” She says, matter of fact. 

Kaneki shoots her a glare and Yume smiles at the bite behind it. Maybe he has some backbone after all. 

It’s later that night, staring at the ceiling while laying in bed that she realizes. She wasn’t remembering anything from  _ this _ life when she saw Kaneki. She was remembering a name from  _ before.  _ The same way she knows a language she never studied, the sight of a city she’s never seen, the taste of a cake she’s never eaten. She knows that boy. Knows him from the pages of a book, from a screen. Her last life has bled through into this one, memories crowding her head for as long as she can remember. But it’s been 18 years since she was that girl, and even longer since she read a manga called  _ Tokyo Ghoul.  _

It’s a surprise she remembers anything of it at all. But now that she’s thinking of it- things line up. It’s a wonder she didn’t take one look at her sister and realize immediately, but- Rize didn’t have a twin in that story. 

So what is Yume doing here? 

… And didn’t Kaneki have white hair? 

—

The question eats at her. The hazy image she has of Kaneki Ken is of white hair, a black eyepatch, a gaping mouth filled with teeth. Tears in the rain.  _ This world is wrong.  _ But the boy she met at Anteiku was soft. What is she forgetting? What could possibly turn that naive boy into the cold man of her memories? 

She doubles down on her research into Aogiri. 

Yume spends several days going to old contacts one after the other, looking for information on the man she saw next to Yamori that day in the tunnels. White hair, red eyes, red mask. Very distinctive, surely someone would have  _ something  _ on him. 

No such luck. 

Finally, she gives up and heads to Helter Skelter, her last resort. The bar is almost empty when she steps in, just one man nursing a drink in the far corner. Itori takes one look at her and her face lights up. 

“Yume! My favorite little vixen, what brings you to my humble establishment!” Itori’s voice lilts in a cadence as she says her name,  _ Yu- _ me _ -chan.  _ Holding back a sigh, Yume sits on a stool and taps twice on the bar top. Itori’s eyes dart to her hand and her grin gets impossibly wider. The older woman takes a wine glass and pours a generous portion of “wine” for her, before sliding it across. Then she blessedly leaves her alone.

It’s not until she’s halfway through the glass and the other patron has left that Itori pounces on her gleefully. 

“Oh I’m so excited! It’s been so long since you’ve needed _my_ kind of help!” She says, smiling, before her lips drop into a pout. “You usually have the information side of things handled.” 

“That’s because I’m good at my job. Or at least, I usually am.” Yume says. 

“So what has you stumped? I might be able to help! For the usual price, of course.” Itori grins. 

Yume sighs and pulls out the piece of paper in her pocket. On it is a sketch of the albino man from the sewers and his red mask. However, at the sight of her drawing, Itori’s jovial attitude drops. 

“Yume… please tell me you didn’t approach him.” 

“No, I didn’t... but you do know who he is, right?” Yume asks.

“Yes. I’ll tell you. But I don’t want you messing around with these people. You stay away from him, okay?” Itori looks serious. 

“Fine.” 

Itori looks reluctant but finally speaks, “that man goes by Tatara. He’s the right hand of the Owl.” 

“The One-Eyed Owl?” 

“The very one.” 

“Shit.” 

“Exactly. That powerful beast tears through ghouls and doves alike.” Itori says. 

But Yume is shocked for a very different reason. She knows who the Owl is, of course she does. She’s the spymaster for her fucking father afterall. The young woman disappeared years ago after her father attacked the second ward in her place. Eto Yoshimura, leading the very organization Yume’s been poking her nose into. Fucking hell. 

“I… I have to go.” Yume stammers out, mentally already a ward away. 

Suddenly, a hand grabs her wrist and breaks her train of thought. 

“Ah ah ah! You know the deal! A piece of info for a piece of info!” Itori may be smiling, but her expression is anything but nice and Yume is suddenly reminded that the older woman is dangerous too. She continues, “now, I’ll give you a deal! I’ll let you choose what you want to answer.” 

“Fine.” 

Itori taps a finger on her lips where they curl into a cheshire grin. “How about…your real name, or why you and Rize didn’t get along.” 

Yume sends her a flat look. “You mean Rize never told you?” 

Itori looks startled before barking out a laugh. “No, no. I never got  _ anything  _ out of Rize. But then again, she never got anything out of  _ me.  _ Our relationship is built on information, your sister only came here to get wasted.”

“Hm. Fine then. Listen well, I’m only saying this once. Our father was not a nice man. To him, I was nothing but an extra, a spare. He sent me to a… group where I was trained, while Rize was meant for her own task. My teachers were not… nice. For me, I was jealous she escaped what amounted to daily beatings,” Yume pauses to clear her throat. Across from her, Itori’s smile is slipping, as if she thought the reason would be borne of a funny, petty sibling rivalry and not… this. “I didn’t know at the time what was planned for her. Perhaps if I did, I wouldn’t have been jealous. All  _ she _ knew is that I escaped a duty worse than death.” 

“Yume…” 

“We resented each other for the other’s respective fate. It didn’t matter that we both escaped our situations on our own. By then it was too late.” She pauses, “And then she turned into a raging bitch and a binge eater.” 

Itori opens her mouth, to say what, she doesn’t know. But Yume knocks back the rest of her drink and walks out the door before she gets the chance to comment. 


	2. Strength

The cafe is quiet when she slips inside Anteiku. Wondering what happened while she was gone, Yume looks around the darkened interior before heading upstairs. She can hear a soft conversation coming from the meeting room. Trailing a hand on the railing, she mentally runs through the possible reasons they would close early. None of them are good. 

Suddenly, the low murmur of voices is interrupted by a yell. 

“WHAT?” It’s Touka. “We have to do something! We should kill those piece of shit doves before they get more information on Himami!” 

“No. We can’t afford to bring the CCG to our doorsteps. Let it go, Touka.” Yoshimura speaks up. 

Yume finally arrives at the doorway to see most of the staff arranged around the room. Touka stands with her fists clenched in the middle of the room, visibly shaking. She sees Kaneki sitting huddled in the corner, looking miserable. 

“You’re pathetic.” Touka spits.

Yoshimura speaks slowly and deliberately, face like stone. “No. What’s truly pitiful is allowing revenge to dictate your life. Please, let it go.” 

With a wordless snarl of rage, Touka turns and stalks out of the room, bumping Yume’s shoulder on the way. 

Thoroughly confused, Yume watches Touka disappear down the hall before sending a glance at the others. Renji sighs and waves a hand absently. “A woman under our protection was killed in front of her daughter. The girl now has nowhere to go, and a group of investigators who know her face.” He explains. 

Yume is lost. She leaves for a week,  _ max _ , and some woman dies? Who made enough of an impact on them that Touka’s talking revenge? And there’s apparently a little girl caught up in the middle. 

“I could go to the border and make some noise. They’ll probably focus on me instead.” She offers suddenly, shocking herself. 

For a moment, Yoshimura looks genuinely tempted before he closes his eyes and shakes his head. “Like I told Touka, we cannot be seen as a ward full of war-like ghouls.” He intones. 

“That’s why I’d go to the border. They’ll think I’m making my way in, and have no reason to think otherwise when I leave.” She argues. 

“But what about the attention that will bring to 19? Or were you thinking 15? No. I’m sure whatever Touka is doing will stir up enough trouble.” 

“Old man,” Yume begins, annoyed, “you’re not responsible for every ghoul in the city. You picked your ward, stick to it. Let me draw the dove's attention away from that girl.” 

Yoshimura opens his eyes, kakugan flaring. “No. That’s final.” 

In the corner, Kaneki watches her with wide eyes. Irumi and Koma are less surprised, having seen the two of them argue before. Renji just looks bored. 

Train of thought thoroughly derailed, it takes a moment for Yume to remember why she was even at Anteiku in the first place. 

“Manager, can I speak to you alone for a moment?” She asks. “Not about this. About our other problem.” 

He sighs and nods, waving a hand at the others. 

Renji claps a hand on her shoulder as he passes and she shoots him a small smile. Kaneki pauses at the door and wrings his hands. 

“Yume?” 

“Yeah?”

“Would you really take on investigators? Just for Hinami? You would fight for her, just like that?” He asks. 

Puzzled, Yume nods. “Yes. Just like that.” 

He nods, before slipping out of the room. 

They both wait a moment to be sure they’re alone before the manager closes the door with a click.

“What do you need?” Yoshimura asks, picking up a teacup left on the table. 

“It’s about your daughter.” She says, bluntly. It’ll be better to rip the bandaid off the wound quickly. “I found out that the One-Eyed Owl is leading Aogiri Tree.” 

The teacup shatters in his hand. 

“Oh, Eto,” he says softly, “I thought… when she disappeared those years ago, I thought she dropped her crusade against the CCG and decided to finally live a normal life. I didn’t think she’d do this.” He murmurs. 

“Sir…” 

“Thank you for telling me, Yume. As always, your information is invaluable,” he turns to her with a soft smile. “I know I don’t say this enough, but I’m truly proud of you for escaping your upbringing. You left  _ them  _ of your own accord, at a far younger age than I did.” 

“It wasn’t anything special.” 

“Oh, I think it was. I have spent the last five years watching you forge a path I did not even dream of taking until it was too late. You achieved what this old fool only  _ eventually _ did but as a child. Give yourself more credit, Yume.” He says, brushing shards of porcelain off his fingers, skin untouched. 

Yume nods, but remains unconvinced. It’s not overcoming her cultish upbringing if she had memories of another life to compare to. She knew her situation was wrong from birth.

There’s a moment of thoughtful silence before Yume remembers Touka’s angry exit and groans.

“Touka’s going to do something stupid, isn’t she?” 

“Most likely.”

“... I’ll go find her.” 

“Yume… remember what's at stake here.” 

“I got it, old man.” 

—

Kaneki Ken follows Irumi down the stairs and almost bumps into her while he’s distracted by his thoughts. Absently, he heads into the cafe proper and slumps into a chair. The interior is still dark, but he doesn’t even notice as he fiddles with the decorative fake candle on the table in front of him. 

Fujisaki Yume is a mystery to him. She bears the face he sees in his nightmares, but she also couldn’t be more different from Rize if she tried. Where Rize wore dresses, and makeup, and carried herself with a feminine-  _ fake fake fake _ \- demeanor, her twin wore dark athletic clothing and made no effort to soften the severe expression on her face. Rize was all syrupy sweetness hiding a rotten core, Yume was something else entirely. He just wasn’t quite sure what yet. 

_ “Let me draw the dove’s attention away from that girl.”  _

She offered her help so easily, earlier, as if she had no doubt weighing her down. As if the thought of fighting a bunch of doves didn’t eat her from the inside out, fear freezing her in place. Kaneki struggles for a moment, thoughts clashing. He thought that he accepted that  _ it’s better to be hurt than to hurt others  _ but that did nothing to help Hinami when she watched her mom die in front of her. He can’t help others when his  _ weakness _ causes them to be hurt.  _ It’s better to be hurt than hurt others,  _ but what does he do when he can’t even take on their pain? 

He needs to become stronger, so that he has the strength to carry their burdens. If he has to become Atlas so that others don’t need to bear the weight of the world then so be it. He will become strong. 

Determined, Kaneki puts down the candle and heads home, resolved to ask Touka to train him. 

—

Tracking down Touka isn’t hard. She simply follows the faint smell of her perfume until she hears the sound of feet thudding against pavement, yelling, and the crackle of a kagune. She holds back a curse and darts up the side of a building with a powerful leap, scrabbling on the brick before she finally catches the lip of the roof and pulls herself over the top. From there, she looks down at the commotion happening in the street below. There’s a dead body slumped on the ground, and another man leaning against the concrete wall. And in the middle of the street Touka and an older white-haired investigator are clashing.

If it can even be called a fight. 

The old man swiftly dodges each of her punches, seemingly using the moment as a  _ teaching opportunity.  _ Touka’s clearly outclassed even before the whip-like quinque comes into play, and Yume is about to leap down to help when she finally catches sight of the man’s face. 

It’s Rank One investigator Mado Kureo, the Quinque Fanatic. 

Yume grips the edge of the roof hard enough to crack the stone and resists the urge to leap down and help. She’ll help if she absolutely needs to, but hopefully Touka will wise up and retreat soon. Below, the spine looking quinque misses her torso by inches but catches her in the shoulder, sending the younger girl crashing to the ground. 

_ Shit.  _

Mado leers down at Touka. “I’ve left more of your ilk in the trash than you could ever eat of mine in a lifetime, little rabbit. When all this is said and done, you’ll just be another notch in my belt!” 

Tensing her muscles to leap down, Yume slowly relaxes as Touka lurches to her feet and dashes up a telephone pole and out of the reach of his blade. 

_ Thank god.  _

She sends one last glance at the doves before leaping across roofs after the younger ghoul. 

It’s a couple of blocks until she catches up and wordlessly offers an arm to the girl where she struggles to catch her breath against an alley wall. However, Touka takes one look at her mask and scowls. 

“You! Yume, you fucking bitch. You were there, weren’t you?” She spits, lifting her arm and hissing at the pain. 

“Yes.” Yume replies. 

“Then why the fuck didn’t you help me, huh?” 

Yume slowly steps forward and reaches to take a look at her wound, but the girl whips out of her reach. 

“Answer me!” 

“I couldn’t let them see my mask. If they knew I was active in this ward then it would draw more powerful investigators here.” She sighs. 

“Then we kill them! C’mon, they can’t report you if they’re fucking dead! They  _ killed  _ Hinami’s mom and want to kill her, too!” Touka yells. 

Secretly, Yume agrees with her. What use is her strength if she cannot use it? But this is Yoshimura’s ward, and Yoshimura’s rules. 

“We  _ shouldn’t  _ kill them. Not  _ couldn’t,  _ but  _ shouldn’t.  _ That man was a rank one investigator, a very powerful man. If the CCG thinks there’s a ghoul in this ward strong enough to kill  _ him _ , then all sorts of high ranking officials will be called in.  _ We cannot afford that.”  _ Yume hisses. “It’s a fucking catch-22. We have his attention until we kill him, but we cannot kill him for fear of drawing more attention. You see?” 

Touka slumps and nods. She finally lets her take a look at her arm, hissing when Yume prods it. 

“Let’s get you to your apartment.” 

“... Alright.” 

—

Touka grimaces and tries to ignore the way her wound pulses in time with her heartbeat, thumping to the rhythm of her rage. Fumbling with the bandages, she swears as she drops the roll of gauze. 

The older ghoul had left almost 15 minutes ago. She had dropped Touka off at the door and left with a joking reminder about her shift tomorrow. Fucking bitch. 

It’s not that she doesn’t like Yume. Far from it, she thinks the older girl can be funny with her dry humor and wit. It’s that Touka doesn’t know how much she can  _ trust _ her. 

For all that she’s known her for 4 years now, Touka has seen her in person perhaps two dozen times. Yume had been at Anteiku perhaps a year longer than Touka, both of them quiet girls with violence lurking under the skin. But where Touka sticks around to help out, Yume seems to disappear for weeks at a time. 

The manager seems to trust Yume’s opinion, but Touka  _ knows  _ that she still hunts, that she doesn’t eat the packages stored in Anteiku’s basement. And what kind of ghoul sits back and watches as someone she knows gets her ass beat by doves? No matter the reason behind it. 

God. 

She takes a deep breath and holds it before slowly letting it out. Perhaps… perhaps her actions were foolish, and rash. She definitely bit off more than she could chew with the arrival of that sick bastard Mado. But that didn’t make them  _ wrong _ . She was trying to protect Hinami. Right?

Touka sits against her closet door and tries not to think about the man she… killed. Murdered.  _ Fuck.  _

It takes a long time to get to sleep. And if, in the morning, she can’t make eye contact in the mirror? So be it. 

Kaneki manages to look bright eyed and bushy tailed when she gets to the cafe, and it drives a spike of indignation through her. Of course he got a good night of sleep. Why wouldn’t he. 

Her foul mood continues through her shift and gets worse when he bumps into her, asking after the coffee beans on the top shelf. She scowls and reaches for the jar when suddenly a sharp pain shoots through her arm and she drops it. 

“Shit.” 

“Are you okay?” 

They speak at the same time. Kaneki flushes and his hands hover inches over her arm as if he’s afraid to hurt her. As if she’s delicate. It just makes her madder. 

“You’re bleeding!”

“I’m fine! Get out of here!” She hisses, pushing him out of the room. She looks up to see the manager giving her the  _ look.  _ The ‘ _ I’m not mad, I’m disappointed’  _ look _.  _

“Since you decided to get involved, you bear the responsibility for whatever happens. Whether you live or die is no longer Anteiku’s concern.” He says sternly. 

She winces and ducks her head. Just as she’s feeling like a piece of gum scraped off the bottom of his shoe, Kaneki comes back in with a roll of bandages. 

“It’s your shoulder, right? Here.” He offers. 

Touka scoffs. “Tch. You’re so irritating for a human.” 

“Well. I’m part ghoul now too.” He murmurs, unwinding her old bandages from last night. 

“Yeah. A weak coward who can’t even use his kagune to kill the doves. You and Yume are the fucking same.” She spits. 

“Yume didn’t go with you?” He seems surprised. 

“Oh she came along. She just didn’t fucking do anything. I  _ know _ I shouldn’t rely on the others for help. I  _ know  _ it’d be better for a murderer like me to die. But those doves who killed Hinami’s mom deserve the same thing.” 

“Well. I still think revenge is the wrong answer. But… I would be sad if you died.” He whispers. 

Shocked, Touka can only stare at him as he finishes wrapping her shoulder. 

Kaneki grips the gauze in his hand before bowing towards her. “Please, teach me to use Rize’s kagune. I don’t know if I can ever take a life, but… doing nothing is also unacceptable.” 

“I think you both could use some training.” A voice cuts in from behind them. 

Touka whips around to see Yume leaning in the doorway, a grin slowly growing on her face. 

“And who better than someone with the same kagune as Rize?” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted more fighting in this chapter but characters decided to *talk* instead, how civil. Kudos and comments are appreciated! Thanks for reading!


	3. Mask

For all that he now understands about the ghouls in his life, he doesn’t know everything. He learned that coffee beans of all things are edible to ghouls, but not  _ why _ . He knows that Anteiku is a safe haven for ghouls, but he doesn’t know how Yoshimura became an authority figure in the ward, or why. He found out that Touka is afraid of birds but not why. 

And he knows that Yume is hiding something. 

Kaneki isn’t stupid, he knows when people keep secrets. It’s hard to lie to a liar after all. 

She is a mirror image of Rize that has been warped. For all of their physical similarities, they couldn’t be any more different. Rize was a snake. She looked so pretty as she gorged herself on every meal, and choked the life out of everything she touched. Well. That’s the impression he got from her as she tried to scramble his insides. If Rize was a snake, then Yume is a crow. Quiet and watchful until she delivers an omen into the still air. 

He heard part of her conversation with the manager that afternoon. He didn’t understand the context, but Yoshimura’s expression told him that her news was nothing good. And the next time she came, it was more of the same. A bearer of bad news. 

One who is offering to teach him. It’s an opportunity he cannot pass up, no matter how intimidating his new teacher is. 

Yume had sent them home after work to change into something a bit better for exercise than a suit, saying that she needed to grab something from her apartment. Kaneki had deliberated over an old pair of gym shorts and some sweatpants before eventually choosing the pants. 

When they finally meet back up outside Anteiku, Yume is holding something long and thin bundled up in a cloth. He feels gratified by his outfit choice when he sees her long black jacket and pants. 

Jiggling a key in the lock, Touka unlocks the cafe and leads them inside. Kaneki notices the light on upstairs and mentions it. 

Touka glances up the stairs. “Hinami is staying up there. I think she’s afraid of the dark.” She explains. 

Oh. Poor girl. Maybe he can find her a night light. 

Yume just keeps walking past them, down the stairs and to an unmarked door in the basement. It opens to reveal a long staircase disappearing into the blackness. 

Kaneki feels like he’s in a horror movie as they descend into the tunnels beneath Anteiku. Sound carries oddly off the concrete and the way their shadows are thrown against the wall is eerie. 

It’s cold underground. 

“Kaneki, can you pull out your kagune? I’d like to see something.” Yume asks, setting her bundle against the wall. 

“I… can’t.” 

“You can’t?” She cocks her head to the side. 

Touka cuts in. “That’s what I was gonna teach him. How to consciously use it.” 

Yume frowns and puts a hand on her chin. “Standard method?” She asks. 

Standard method…?

“Yup.” Touka nods, pulling off her jacket. 

“Oh. Okay then.” And she proceeds to sit on the ground. “Good luck Kaneki.” 

Good luck!?

Touka tosses her coat to the side and shoots him a look. “If I stood here explaining, you’d never get it. When I was taught, it was this way. But you might die though, so get ready.” 

_ Die!? _

Touka suddenly rushes towards him and he stumbles back. He dodges her first swipe but gets caught with a wicked fist to the gut. It’s like all the air in his lungs got knocked out of him. He finally draws in a ragged breath when she delivers a kick to his chest, sending him flying into the wall. 

“Touka?” 

She looks apathetic as she tugs away his eyepatch. 

“Looks like you aren’t scared enough.” She murmurs. 

Then she puts her foot against his finger and slowly bends it back. A desperate panic grips him. 

“Wait!”

And with a terrible  _ snap _ his finger breaks with the ease his mom used to snap carrots. Sharp pain runs up his arm and he screams, but when he looks up, she still just seems disappointed. 

Yume suddenly cuts in beside him and he almost wilts in relief. She’ll stop Touka’s assault and finally tell him what he’s doing wrong! And then he actually hears what she says. 

“Hmm, Touka, it seems like you’re just not scary enough. I suppose it’s my turn.” She drawls, languidly sliding to her feet like a cat. Her lips curl up and her eyes are  _ empty empty empty _ , kakugan black as night and red as blood. He is suddenly reminded that he sees Rize's face,  _ Yume’s  _ face, in his nightmares. 

A static crackling fills the air and behind her one two three four  _ five  _ red tails bloom into existence. The hair on the back of his neck rises and some animal instinct  _ screams  _ at him. 

“Kaneki.”

“Y-yeah?”

Her smile grows, “I’m going to kill you now.” 

With a startled yelp he begins crawling backwards, forgetting about his broken finger and wincing as he slams it against the concrete. As she advances, so similar to the night Rize attacked him, something primal grips him and he feels his kagune flare. 

_ Get away get away get away get AWAY! _

On instinct he whips it around to block her strike and is shocked out of his panic when it actually connects. And to his surprise, her scary aura vanishes almost immediately to be replaced with an open curiosity. 

“Oh! Oh wow, yeah, that’s Rize’s kagune. Slightly different shape but…” she says, trailing off. 

“This is useless. His kagune against that bastard Nishiki was stronger than that.” Touka comments.

Kaneki lays panting on the ground, left with a burst of adrenaline and no outlet. Red particles dissipate as his hold on the kagune falters and eventually it disappears. Yume looks disappointed but not surprised and Kaneki holds back a wince. 

“Well. I was hoping to start with a bit more than that but… Touka, you can still spar with me. Maybe Kaneki will pick up a thing or two anyways.” Yume’s voice echoes off the concrete as she walks over to her things and picks up the wrapped object. She begins unfolding the cloth and to Kaneki’s surprise a sheathed sword tumbles into her palm. 

However, at the sight of the weapon Touka releases a sharp hiss through her teeth, taking a step back. 

“Where the fuck did you get a quinque?” She yells. 

Yume looks unimpressed. “Where do you think?” She replies sarcastically. 

Kaneki looks at the sword in a new light and tries not to think about how that wasn’t an answer. More questions for later. The blade looks like a katana, with a black sheath and a black and white pattern on the handle. He hates to call it beautiful, knowing what quinques are made of, but it does fit the description. 

Suddenly the sword is unsheathed and Kaneki blinks. Between one second and the next it is brandished in her hand. And then- the two are fighting. Their movements are so fast they’re practically blurs. How is he supposed to learn anything from this!

He squints a little harder and something  _ shifts _ and suddenly he can follow their fight much easier. He carefully touches the skin around his eye and can feel the veins bulging. So his kakugan is active. Like this, their movements are still fast but more readable, and he is able to finally focus on the fight. 

Touka’s kagune wing trails behind her as she launches off the wall, keeping her distance from Yume’s piercing tails and sharp blade. She twists gracefully in the air and he holds back a cheer when she launches a volley at Yume. He wilts when Yume simply brings a scaly limb forward like a shield, ignoring the attack. He wouldn’t admit it out loud, but he’s rooting for the younger ghoul. 

Slowly, he gets an idea of how a true ghoul uses their kagune. The last time he fought, he used his like a battering ram, like a bludgeoning tool. Yume uses it for  _ everything.  _ When she kicks off the ground, a tail will lend power. When she moves, her kagune lends her six extra limbs. At one point, she flicks a tail out to redirect her momentum mid-air. 

It’s fascinating. It’s terrifying. 

Touka lands on the concrete in a back spring, and quick as a snake, Yume kicks off the ground, blade extended. Touka leaps back and darts around a concrete pillar. Yume, already rocketing forward, has to use three of her tails to curve around it and another three to find purchase in the concrete ceiling. Touka grins, and even Kaneki can see the opening- while Yume is in the air she can’t dodge, and her tails are occupied! Yes! 

Touka’s wing flares and with a loud crackle she shoots at the other girl. Kaneki shakily grins. 

Too early. 

He forgot about the blade- and so did Touka. Yume stabs the katana  _ into the pillar _ and  _ perches on top of it _ . Her tails are then free to swing around and with a sound like shattering glass the volley of projectiles bounces harmlessly off the scaly limbs. She drops to the ground, leaving the katana stuck in the wall.

Touka takes a heaving breath, looking visibly tired, but she still leaps forward. For once, Yume doesn’t have the advantage of reach without the blade. Unfortunately, even Kaneki can tell Touka is at her limit. She gets one good punch in before Yume gets her with a vicious kick to the ribs and sends her crashing into the wall.

Touka taps the ground and doesn’t get back up again. 

“HOLY SHIT!” Someone yells.

It takes Kaneki a moment to realize that it was himself. At their blank glares he frantically rushes to elaborate. 

“That was so cool! Oh my god!” He gushes, a hand brushing his chin. Yeah. Cool.  _ Scary as hell.  _

“Kaneki. Shut up.” Touka mumbles into the floor. 

Yume just gives him a blinding grin and retrieves her sword, turning to address the girl still slumped on the ground, “Touka, that was a good fight. You were right to keep your distance until I was disarmed. As an ukaku you have the advantage at range.” 

Touka sends her a halfhearted glare. “Fat lot of good it did me.” She mutters. 

Yume turns to Kaneki as she sheathes her blade. “Similar advice goes to you. If you’re going to be facing investigators, your priority will be disarming your opponent. Depending on their weapon, you’ll have to either keep your distance or keep close. We’ll work on that once you can use your kagune better.” 

“... Okay.”

Lesson over, Touka assigns him a workout routine and teases his physique while they head upstairs. Kaneki’s blushing when he looks over and startles at the sight of Uta. The tattooed ghoul is standing in the entrance of Anteiku.

His tattoos and punk appearance will always scare him, just a little. Uta glances over at Yume who is rewrapping her sword, and his eyes narrow. No- not at Yume. At her sword. But he doesn’t say anything and instead hands Kaneki a package. 

Curious, he opens it to find a mask. Black with an empty grin, the leather creaks under his fingers as he pulls it on.

—

Yume keeps her eyes on Uta and finishes bundling up her sword. She’s known him for years, ever since he made her first mask, and through Itori at Helter Skelter. But she racks her brain for any time she’s had her sword on her around them. Never. So this is the first time he’s seen it, yet he  _ recognized it _ . And that makes him dangerous. 

Then she looks up to see Kaneki’s mask and has to hold back a gasp. She’s seen flashes of it in her memories but the sight of him in his iconic grinning mask hits her like a freight train. It triggers a floodgate of memories, random disjointed scenes that coalesce into one- his torture at the hands of Jason. 

How could she forget the most important scene in the first season? In his goddamn story arc? 

But this isn’t the page of some manga, not anymore. This is  _ his life _ .  _ Her  _ life now. Things have real consequences. Her shit memory is going to have consequences. When will it happen? She doesn’t know. Hopefully never, if she has anything to say about it.  _ But _ , an insidious voice whispers in her ear,  _ he grew strong from it.  _ She smothers that thought down.

Uta leaves with a parting comment about Kaneki’s eyepatch and another unreadable glance at her katana. 

Her smile is empty as they part ways for the night. Kaneki gives her a little half wave, still nervous around her, or perhaps nervous in general. Touka doesn’t even say goodbye, she just walks off in the direction of her apartment. 

And then she’s alone. Scratching her jaw, Yume stands just outside the doors of Anteiku and contemplates the clusterfuck her life is becoming. Just by sheer proximity, she’s balls deep in the plot of a story she barely remembers. But she owes old man Yoshimura more than she can ever repay, and poor Kaneki deserves better than the tragedy on those inked pages. She’ll stick around and help as best she can. 

She glances up at the lit window above her and thinks about the newly made orphan. Hinami was part of that story too, she’s sure of it. Whatever she does, it will have to be around Kaneki. Many of the story plots revolve around him. 

Yume begins slowly heading towards her apartment, slipping through the crowded streets. Her apartment is on the other side of the ward, so she has a bit of a trek. She keeps a firm grip on her bundle, and half an eye on her surroundings as she thinks. What does she know for sure? What is she forgetting? With a frown, she thinks back to her life,  _ before.  _ From watching anime on her shitty laptop after school, to the couple of times she picked up the manga. With a jolt, she realizes that she didn’t even finish it. Something tickles the back of her head, a stray thought. Wasn’t there an announcement of another series? Did she even read it? Watch it? Oh god. She’s playing chess with half the fucking pieces.

For a moment, she feels a flash of rage. Why is it her responsibility to try and remember this shit? She can barely remember her first mother’s face, let alone a passing fancy from fucking high school. High school was, like, years ago even before she died and lived 18 years here. Fuck this. 

But then she sees Kaneki in her mind's eye, his softness, his round face and open expression. Her anger deflates like a balloon and she thinks of the resolve from not even half an hour ago. Where did that go? What’s her problem? She’s being such a contrary bitch. Maybe she’s hungry.

And then she walks smack into someone and feels even worse. With an  _ oof  _ she collides with a solid wall of living muscle. A couple of folders go flying. “Oh my god you’re built like a brick!” She exclaims, before realizing what she just said out loud. “I’m sorry!” She stammers. 

A tall young man with black hair and a blank expression stands before her. He cuts an imposing figure, all towering muscle. Holy hell, he must be at least a foot taller than her. 

At her words, though, his countenance cracks and a blush dusts his cheeks. “No, no, I’m sorry.” He replies, flustered. At once they both seem to notice the paperwork he dropped and the fact that they’re taking up space in the middle of the sidewalk. 

“Shit! I’m sorry!” She babbles and bends over to begin picking up his documents. Luckily it’s not windy so none have blown away. One page slips out of a folder and she sees  _ Commision of Counter Ghoul  _ printed neatly at the top and has to forcibly restrain her gut reaction. A  _ dove.  _ The monster of many ghouls nightmares. From the quick glance she got at the page she saw a picture of that little girl at Anteiku. She’s holding Hinami’s case file. It takes everything she has not to react and give anything away. 

“I’m Sally. Again, I’m terribly sorry.” She lies through her teeth as they move to the side of the sidewalk underneath the awning of a bookstore. With a glance, she spots the huge glass monstrosity of the CCG office in the distance and frowns. He must be just getting off work. She’s uncomfortably aware of the quinque under her arm and what he would do if he discovered it. 

“Kotarou Amon. No offense taken. I was probably at fault, I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going.” He says, taking the files from her hands. “You said your name was Sally? Are you here on vacation?” He asks politely. Damn him. She wants to end this conversation as soon as possible. She shouldn’t have picked a foreign name.

She deliberately shifts awkwardly. “Ah, well, yes. I’m visiting my grandparents for the first time in years and, well, I wanted to explore the city a bit but it’s so big!” She says. 

The investigator’s eyes widen. “You’ve been wandering around by yourself? The sun will be down soon!” 

“It’s okay! I’m on my way home.” She smiles. It feels so fake on her lips.  __

He frowns and glances at the emptying side streets. At night in Tokyo, only the most busy, lit up,  _ safe  _ areas stay crowded after dark. There are  _ demons _ in their midst, after all. “Let me walk you home.” His words are a statement, not an offer. 

“Ah, Mr. Kotarou, that’s very forward of you.” She stammers. 

The older man flushes, as if just noticing the connotation of his words. “Not like that! I’m a ghoul investigator, I can keep you safe on your way home.” 

Ha! If only he knew he was offering to protect a wolf in sheep’s clothing. But she can use this. 

“Well, then, Mr. Investigator. Let’s go!” She marches off. He scrambles to follow but his long legs soon catch up. 

And then they’re off, two monsters with human skin walking side by side. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had a whole list of things to address this chapter and instead Amon came out of nowhere and derailed everything lmao. Sorry for the delay for this chapter, but its a bit longer than the first two!


	4. Nightfall

The time just after sunset, when the sky isn't sure what color to be; that liminal time between day and night, light and dark- that is his favorite time to think. He’s usually either still at the office, or already at home, so when Amon steps outside after his shift and gets the chance to walk home at sunset he takes it gladly. He would hate to waste the beautiful weather with a train ride. Besides, he has plenty to think about. Briefcase in one hand and case files cradled in the other, Amon starts his trek home. Normally he wouldn't take confidential files from the office but- he thinks of Kusaba’s death at the hands of that Rabbit ghoul and feels righteous fury grip his heart. He needs to work harder, longer. To be better, to fix what is wrong with this broken world.

He wasn’t expecting to bump into a girl. He certainly wasn’t expecting to offer to walk her home. 

Startling him with the juxtaposition of a foul mouth (“ _ Shit! I’m sorry!”)  _ and a sweet smile ( _ “It's okay!”)  _ he isn't sure what to make of this foreigner. She flits about ahead of him, nimbly twisting around other pedestrians as she peers into shop windows. It’s a wonder they bumped into each other at all if this is how graceful she can be. Her Japanese is very good, the only indication it's not her native language is a slight accent curling around the edges of her words and her coarse vocabulary. 

“Hey, Mr. Investigator! Why do you carry a briefcase if you're not even gonna use it?” Sally asks, suddenly at his side like she never wandered away from it. He holds back a sigh. He can’t tell if she’s deliberately obtuse or just nosy. 

“I don't have room in my briefcase. That’s why.” he replies, leaving out that his briefcase doesn’t have room because of the weapon inside it. She just hums and darts off to look at a piece of graffiti, too close to a dimly lit alley for his comfort. Amon sighs and drags her by the hand back onto the main sidewalk. Are all Americans like this? So… flighty? Ignorant of danger?

“Oh. Are you religious? You wear a cross,” she reaches out to touch his necklace and he bats her hand away. 

“No. It’s a reminder, nothing more.” Why is he even telling her this?

“Ne, Mr. Investigator-” 

“Please, call me Amon.”

“-have you ever seen a ghoul? My grandpa says they have huge fangs, like vampires!” she says, holding two fingers in front of her mouth with a hiss. 

“... yes. I have. They do not have fangs.” 

She pouts, and something about the expression screams plastic. “A pity. I think fangs are sexy.” 

Amon chokes. 

It takes another twenty minutes, countless inane questions, and a heart stopping moment where she almost walked into traffic before she finally turns to him with a smile. 

“Here we are!” she crows. Amon glances at the rows of windowed apartments and grins feebly. Finally. 

Suddenly, pale arms are wrapped around him, her head pressed against his chest in a hug. Almost a foot shorter, the top of her dark purple hair barely reaches his shoulders. She smells like flowers and a hint of lemon. What-

“Thank you!” she says into his shirt, before pulling away and running up the stairs of the building.

What a strange girl.

He doesn't notice the piece of paper missing from under his arm until much later. 

\--

Yume grins as she flits across rooftops. Despite such a large detour away from her real apartment, it was satisfying to lead that investigator around by the nose. He was so easy to poke fun at, too. All his emotions worn on his sleeve, all his buttons so simple to press. And the best prize of the night- a page from Hinami’s file. Stopping on the rough concrete roof of a parking garage, Yume glances over the page she filched. It’s the info on Hinami’s physical description. Upon closer inspection, the picture she thought was a photograph of Hinami seems to be a drawn sketch instead. They must have brought in a forensic artist. The composite sketch isn't bad, but it holds only the barest resemblance to the young ghoul. Her hair, perhaps. Wide doe eyes. No wonder they haven’t circulated it- it could be any young girl on the street. Instead there is a note at the bottom to put her outfit in the wanted posters instead. 

Hmm. This is good. She stuffs the page into her pocket and continues on her way. The night is young and she has so much to do yet. 

Jumping to the next roof, she laughs, clear and bright. Parkour is much more fun as a ghoul. In her past life as a human she tried to learn for a month or so. All she got for her troubles was the ability to climb a fence a bit faster and bruised knees. Nowhere near able to vault across rooftops. 

Eventually, she climbs down a fire escape and walks the last block to her ramshackle apartment building. Slipping inside, Yume pulls off her jacket and sets her sword into her bedroom. The page from Hinami’s file gets placed between her mattress and the bedframe. She’ll bring that to Anteiku in a couple days. For now, she has some contacts to meet in the 4th ward, and it'll be a long enough trip without adding in the extra time to make some coffee. 

Too bad. She could use the caffeine. 

Instead she swaps to her ‘work’ jacket, a long black one with a hood, and slips out the door. Her mask sits in a bag at her side. 

\--

“How many times have I told you, Hisao? Keep a damn lid on your munching, I can hear you from a mile away.” A voice calls from the dark. 

Hisao yelps and chokes on the entrails in his mouth. 

“F-Fox! Fancy seeing you here!” he finally manages, after a terrified glance at the ghoul sitting calmly on top of a nearby wall. Her dark red mask snarls in the moonlight and he tries not to stare at it too long. She never fails to startle him. So fucking quiet. Fox gives him a disgusted huff, and he realizes how loudly he was eating. Absently he runs a hand across his mouth and smears the blood there. 

“What do you need this time, Fox?” he asks. 

“How have things been, still having trouble with the Academy students?” She tilts her head. Hisao frowns at the non-answer and pushes aside the body in front of him. It’s gonna be one of those conversations then. 

“Those baby doves are always a nuisance, you know that. Now what are you really here for?” he grumbles. 

“I need you to spread some rumors. Please.” 

“Wow. It must be serious if the illustrious Fox is saying  _ please. _ ” he jokes. Her eyes narrow and all of a sudden he’s sprawled on the ground, her boot on his chest, and Hisao is reminded why he works with her in the first place. The she-devil crushing his diaphragm is a force of nature, remorseless and terrible. You either help her or get the fuck out of her way. 

The streets of Tokyo are a ghoul eat ghoul world and he’s seen Fox tear the head off someone in her way without blinking. She might not have the gleeful savagery of Yamori or the fierce brutality of Three Blades. She doesn’t hold a ward in her name or have an army of underlings. 

What she does have is the cold determination to get shit done, the flow of information held in an iron grip, and the power to keep it. 

“I’m sorry- yes, yes I can do that.” He wheezes. The pressure slowly eases and he coughs twice. “What are the details?”

“I need a young girl to be ‘seen’ in several different places. Young, short brown hair. A torn butterfly dress. If you need to you can change the small details around. Try to spread the sightings in the wards around the 20th.” Fox drawls. 

“She have a name?” Hisao asks. 

“Not one you’ll ever find out. That’s all, Hisao. I’ll check back with you in a week for progress on the situation. I might be able to get you your forged passport and a plane ticket by then.” She says as she leaves, footsteps as silent as she arrived. 

Hisao waits until he’s sure she’s gone before slumping in relief and returning to his meal. Still, no matter how scary Fox can be, she’s fair. She promised him a way out of the country and he knows she’ll deliver. He smiles, soft and pleased. Fake documents are expensive, far more than a grocery store clerk can earn. But by helping out Fox once in a while, he has finally done it. He can’t wait to see his daughter after five long years. 

—

Nakama Shizuka huddles further into her coat. Every year the cold night air seems to bite harder and harder. Today was an okay day, a kind young lady dropped a 500 yen coin and another gave her a 1000 yen bill. She splurged and bought herself a new pair of socks, pocketing the rest for another day.

Shizuka absently fiddles with her sleeves as she sits and watches people pass by. Despite it being late, she’s decided to continue Suddenly, a hand reaches for her pan of money and quick as a snake she snatches the offending wrist. Her hands might be soft and wrinkled but they hide a grip of steel. 

The money is clenched in a small hand, and the hand belongs to a young boy, his clothes far more ragged looking than hers. She sighs and lets him take the money he managed to grab. He needs it more than she does. 

As he runs off the weight of a warm body settles onto the ground at her side, and Shizuka glances over to see a familiar young woman leaning against the wall. Her black coat is as pristine as always and her pale face glows smooth in the neon lights of the seedier establishments. 

A warm cup is pressed into her hands and Shizuka breathes in the heady scent of coffee. 

“Hello girlie.” She greets, voice rasping. 

A wrapped package is next, slipped into her lap. Shizuka smells flesh under the strong scent of coffee and smiles. To anyone else it will simply look like beef jerky. 

“You see anything interesting?” The young girl murmurs. 

Shizuka laughs, a crooked, wheezing thing. 

“No one pays attention to an old broad like me. Of course I saw some things. Misaki’s gang is gearing up for something big. They’ve been getting shipments of something coming in from the docks. I think the doves have caught on, though, they’ve been running around more as of late.” 

The girl hums, standing up. “The Misaki problem will probably take care of itself then. Just… keep an eye out for Aogiri moving in. Thank you Shizuka.” 

She raises her coffee cup. “Cheers, Foxie.”

“Stay safe.” Comes the soft reply. 

And she disappears, melding into the shadows. 

—

Yume holds back a jaw cracking yawn and keeps moving. It’s better to get things done all in one go than to miss an important report because she was  _ sleeping _ of all things. If that means traveling across half of Tokyo in one night then so be it. 

Puzzle pieces click together in her mind, slotting into place. She’s seen this pattern play out several times now. First, something riles up the local ghouls. It’s something small every time, but like kicking a hornet's nest, soon the whole ward is buzzing. And then, when the CCG is busy dealing with the small fry, Aogiri swoops in and takes over. They’re like a cancer, infecting every ward slowly but surely. 

She wouldn’t mind Misaki’s group getting put down. They’re too violent, too unpredictable. But she doesn’t want Aogiri claiming another ward. Maybe she can tip off Misaki’s rivals? If they band together then there’s a chance they can hold the 4th ward. 

She keeps moving, plans forming in the back of her mind.

In the small hours of the morning, when the whole world seems to be holding its breath, Yume steels herself and crosses the threshold into the lion’s den. The 1st ward. She pays extra attention here, where the doves are strongest, where not even the shadows are safe. 

But even the crown jewel of the CCG hides a rotten core, and she can take advantage of it. 

The sun is just peeking from the horizon when she sidles up to the back door of the Silver Cat, her mask once again safe in her bag _.  _ A couple girls in their high heels and bright dresses linger outside, smoke curling around their jaws, the bright cherries of the cigarettes glowing. They chatter excitedly at the sight of her, sparkling like jewels next to the filth of the dumpster. She nods to the man at the door and he waves her inside. 

The Silver Cat is a high-end “gentlemen's club” and bar, and whether they will admit it or not, many of its patrons are the various office workers nearby. Including the main branch of the CCG. 

Kimi greets her with a whirlwind of movement and a grin. Her long robes wave as her hands flutter over Yume’s hair, her nails, her face. The beautiful woman has been working at this establishment for years now, and all the other girls call her  _ Hime.  _

Kimi  _ tsks _ at her chapped lips and stubby nails, but leads her into the dressing room without delay. The girls inside take one look at her and drop their makeup wipes. They must be tired after a long night of working, but they don’t look it the way they crowd her excitedly. They don’t know who she is-  _ what _ she is- but they don’t need to. Money is money, and she brings a lot of it. 

“The chairman’s secretary of  _ Yamamoto Foods _ was complaining about his boss again- get this- he has  _ another  _ unprofessional conduct complaint. At this rate he’ll have a lawsuit by the end of the month…”

“I heard that K2 Pharmaceuticals is releasing a cheaper alternative to insulin next week…” 

Every tidbit of information- no matter how useless it seems- gets carefully slotted into a growing mental file. Every story is rewarded, no matter how inane it seems. The girls pocket the wad of cash eagerly and go back to their mirrors, secure in the knowledge they can feed themselves and their families for another week. All for a little gossip. 

There’s a reason Itori called her good at her job- the owner of _Helter Skelter_ runs an impressive circle, but she sits and lets the information come to her bartop. Yume goes _straight_ _to the source._ The everyday workers, the beggars, the dancers. All of them an overlooked web of information on the everyday movements of people. 

And every so often she is rewarded with true gold. 

“...Toshiaki came in last week already wasted. I’m surprised he was let in the doors. That poor man- I heard his wife was killed by ghouls in the 2nd. He’s been putting in extra time at the office, he said, so he can catch the ghoul responsible,” the girl frowns, “being an investigator must be such a hard job.” 

Yume absently hums in agreement. 

The girl waves her hand and continues, “but Toshiaki said that things will be okay, because some big wig is taking a look at the case. Arima something or other.” 

Careful not to freeze, not to let anything show on her face, Yume smiles and slips the girl her cut. So the Reaper is in the 2nd ward. She’ll have to spread the word to the ghouls there. 

Yume stays for another 20 minutes before taking her leave and heading back out the door into the morning sun. In broad daylight she won’t be able to run across the roofs like she could in the dark, but the trip to the 2nd isn’t that long. 

All she wants to do is pass out in her bed, but it looks like it’s shaping up to be a clusterfuck. Kishou Arima on the prowl, Aogiri grabbing wards left and right, Hinami’s situation- she’s not getting any sleep any time soon.

She keeps going. 

—

Anteiku is as always a hub of activity in the daylight. Customers chat over coffee and the warm curl of steam wafts from the press. Despite the circumstances that led him to work here- Kaneki truly enjoys his job. His coworkers, despite being ghouls, are all wonderful people. Even Touka with her scary faces and growly demeanor- he knows that a half of that is just for show. She’s secretly a softie.

Kaneki glances at Touka, as she scowls at the pile of dishes. Scratch that. Maybe 30 percent. 

It’s been a week since their first training session, and in Yume’s absence Touka has been especially demanding that he shape up. She even dragged him undercover to the CCG. Despite the terror of their trip to the huge office, however, Kaneki is cautiously hopeful that things will work out. If only Hinami would cheer up. 

While Touka glares the dishes into submission, Kaneki starts his lunch break and picks up a newspaper on the table to thumb through while he has a cup of coffee.

Suddenly, Kaneki clenches the newspaper and has to take a deep breath. Right on the page is an obituary for one of the investigators who killed Mrs. Fuegechi. Loosening his hands, Kaneki glances at Touka and brushes a hand over the wrinkles his grip left on the pages. 

She seems to feel his eyes on her because she whirls and snatches the newspaper neatly out of his hands. 

“Are you going to say anything?” She asks, deceptively calm, but she continues before he can answer. “So what if I did this? I won’t stop until they’re all dead. So don’t get it my way.” 

She turns her back on him, effectively closing the conversation before it had even begun. “I’m going to go check on Hinami.” 

Kaneki says nothing as she walks out, still holding his newspaper. He didn’t even get a word in.

That night, while they’re closing up the cafe, Yume slips inside and starts making a coffee as if she didn’t disappear for a week. When she starts chugging it like her life depends on it, Irimi just pats Yume’s hand and goes to get changed. 

Kaneki stares from his place wiping down tables. Isn’t it hot? The coffee must be scalding, yet Yume doesn’t flinch, simply refilling her cup and going again. 

Touka stares in disbelief, then horror, and then rage as Yume downs a third and fourth cup of coffee. 

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing? I just cleaned that machine!” Touka seethes. Absently Kaneki notes that her default emotion seems to be anger. “I’ve been busting my ass off working as a waitress, going to school, and protecting Hinami just for you to come in here and fuck up my close? Eat shit and die!” 

Yume doesn’t even pause as she tilts back the mug to get the last of the coffee. Eventually she finishes and she carefully sets the mug down, completely at odds with the way she almost desperately consumed the caffeine. The bags under her eyes could have been bruises for how dark they were. Whatever her week looked like, it was clearly exhausting. 

“And what exactly have you done for Hinami? You attacking those doves seems to have just made them angrier.” Yume comments, tone mild. 

“Fuck you! Me and Kaneki gave the CCG a false trail to follow. We tipped them fake info.” 

Yume pauses. There’s something predatory in her stillness, and Kaneki thinks that this is the most angry he’s ever seen her. 

“You… tipped false info?” She asks.

“Yeah, dumbass, we went to the CCG.” 

The mug in Yume’s hand shatters. 

“Why would you go to the CCG  _ personally?  _ I already have people spreading false info, much more discreetly than  _ waltzing in the front door _ might I add.” Yume hisses, before continuing to mutter to herself under her breath, “it might get dismissed as another useless report, blend in with the other white noise… maybe this could work...” 

“Hey guys…” Kaneki tries.

Touka puffs up and stomps over to the older girl. “And how the fuck were we supposed to know that, huh? You disappear for a week with no word. All you ever  _ do  _ is disappear and go off on your own. Maybe if you  _ told us  _ you were doing something I wouldn’t have gone!” She says, jabbing a finger in Yume’s face. 

Yume’s eyes widen. Touka senses her weakness and goes in for the kill, voice low, “The manager might trust you, but I know a snake when I see one. You’re just as bad as your sister.” 

“GUYS.” Kaneki yells. 

Both girls whirl to glare at him, united in their annoyance at his interruption. But they both go pale at his words. 

“Where's Hinami?” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Touka is acting like a little shit but she'll mellow out soon. Yume just wants to sleep. Kaneki is questioning his life choices. 
> 
> Aaaaand we have a reveal of Yume's mask! To other ghouls, she's known as Fox. We'll see what the CCG calls her next chapter. 
> 
> Anyways, thanks for reading! I'll see you next chapter :)


	5. Mother, Father

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so uh TW for gore and canon typical violence.

Hinami sits in the dark and curls tighter against her mom’s arm. After the initial shock, the only thing left behind was a numb acceptance. As soon as she smelled the comforting scent of pear blossoms, she knew. She knew.

She knew that it wasn’t her mom waiting for her at the end of the trail. But she missed her mom too much to stay away. Hinami would do anything to glimpse even a part of her one more time. So when she ran in the night after seeing the sorrow  _ (regret, sadness at the passing of a loved one)  _ printed on those pages and smelled those familiar flowers, she stumbled blindly towards it. 

She  _ knew.  _ She’s young, not stupid.

She just didn’t care. 

Hinami gently tangles her fingers between her mother’s. If she closes her eyes and ignores how cold it is, it’s almost as if she’s holding her hand one last time. It’s morbid ( _ abnormal and unhealthy interest in unpleasant subjects)  _ and terrible and comforting at the same time. Like how Takatsuki Sen’s books are morbid and terrible and comforting, just a bit. 

Suddenly, Touka stumbles around the corner and calls her name. Hinami just huddles tighter. She doesn’t want to look at her face, not yet. 

“Hina… let’s go home.” 

Hinami grits her teeth. “No.”

She hears the gravel crunch as Touka steps forward. She turns away even more, and tries not to feel guilty when Touka’s outstretched hand flinches. 

“There’s no point. No matter where I hide, I’ll be hunted down and killed. Just like Mom, just like that investigator in the newspaper. That was you, wasn’t it? It doesn’t matter. I’ll just run, and run, and never stop-” Her throat clenches on the last word and she shuts her mouth with a clack. 

“Hina… the CCG doesn’t have much on you. The only doves that saw your face are the ones that were there that day, and I’ve already killed one of them. We can protect you!” Touka says softly, kneeling down to place her arms around her. It’s… not good, nothing is good right now, but Touka’s hug is… nice. Maybe she is allowed to have this. 

As Touka is standing back up, she pulls out her phone and starts a conversation with someone on the other end. Hinami sniffles and tries to let go of the arm.

“I found her.”

“-near Kasahara elementary. Yeah-”

And then Hinami notices a silhouette behind them. Her breath stutters and catches in her chest. Pale hair, a deranged smile. Hunched shoulders. It’s the  _ monster _ that killed her mom. 

Touka’s phone snaps shut with a resolute  _ clack.  _

—

When his mentor got that…  _ item  _ from storage, he was slightly disgusted and extremely doubtful. It seemed like a waste of time. But here he is, running in the dark, his quinque a comforting weight in his hand. The trap  _ worked _ . The child ghoul went for the bait. Unbelievable. Maybe it was hungry. 

Cutting off that train of thought, Amon keeps a steady pace towards Kasahara elementary school. In the distance, a hooded figure steps into view. He pauses, and frowns. A ghoul?

They’re between a high wall and a fenced off drop. Not an ideal place to fight, but he’s had worse.

The masked figure’s punch is laughably weak, and after a brief exchange, it leaps back with more speed than he was expecting. Not human after all. The beast’s kakugan activates and Amon narrows his eyes. He's about to pull out his quinque when another hooded figure leaps down from the wall and puts a hand on the first one’s shoulder. The newcomer is angled away from him, all he can see is the edge of their mask and a hood. 

Amon tenses. Two on one is not good odds. 

“... fight… you can run.” Female, by the voice. They’re speaking low enough that he only catches every other word. 

“Please, go help… I can do this…  _ need  _ to do this.” The eyepatch one says. 

“Okay. Be careful.” 

A male and a female then. The girl one turns and he sees a flash of purple hair peeking out of the hood and a snarling animal mask before she flickers past him with a surprising burst of speed. He flinches, but despite coming close enough to leave the faint scent of flowers, she doesn’t touch him. Afterwards, when this long night is over and his mentor is dead, he will remember short purple hair, the faint smell of blossoms, and a missing file. But for now he shoves the familiarity to the back of his head and thinks only of the fight. 

“Shit!” He swears, and turns to intercept her when he’s interrupted by the weak male. Amon doesn’t have time for this- he has to help Mado- but he doesn’t get the chance to run after the other ghoul. The male comes at him in a flurry of movement. He blocks a sloppy punch and steps back, frustrated. Time to make this quick. His quinque unfolds with a crackle and Amon immediately rushes forward. 

They clash. 

_ This world is wrong. _

—

Yume keeps a running litany of swears in the back of her head as she sprints towards the sound of fighting. Behind her, she can hear Kaneki running at the investigator and has to force herself to keep moving. He’d be fine. The girls, who if she’s right are currently fighting a  _ First Class Investigator,  _ will not be. 

Finally making it to the tunnel, Yume skids across the pebbles to see Touka pinned to a pillar and Hinami crying on the ground. 

“Hey!” she shouts. 

Mado’s disturbing gaze swivels to look at her and Yume takes vicious delight in the way his eyes widen. 

“ _ Yako _ … the demon fox.” He breathes.

_ That’s right. _ She tosses back her hood and lets all six tails of her kagune unfurl behind her.  _ Look death in the eye and weep.  _

Mado pulls his quinque free from Touka’s side with a terrible squelch and turns his full focus on her. Good. Touka falls to the ground and presses a hand to her mangled side, shakily getting to her feet just to collapse again.

“Rabbit. Go help our friend. He has a fight of his own.” Yume calls out. 

She sees Touka nod but knows it’ll be a minute before she’ll be able to run. A dribble of blood is running down Touka’s chin and more oozes past her hand. 

Mado squints at her voice but doesn’t say anything, choosing to slowly circle them instead. Yume copies his movement, until she’s firmly between Hinami and Mado. 

“How many of you rats are gathering around the little Fuegechi? Especially you, Yako. What is a beast like you doing here?” He calls out. 

Yume doesn’t reply, calmly slinking into a lower stance. 

“Well, no matter. I’ll simply kill you and  _ add you to my collection!”  _ He grins, swinging the whip-like quinque in a large arc while he pulls the other one in like a shield. 

Behind her, Yume hears a little gasp, nothing more than a small burst of air, and suddenly a long tendril snakes past her and slams into Mado. 

“ _ Stop attacking my sisters!”  _

Hinami’s kagune slices a thin line into Mado’s arm, but he hauls his weapon around in time to block most of the damage. With a scream, Hinami’s kagune flails, damaging the walls and gouging deep holes in the ground. Yume has to leap to the side to avoid the erratic strikes. The young girl even scores a slash across Mado’s hand, forcing him to drop the fleshy quinque. 

“Oh! Oh  _ perfect.  _ The perfect combination of the best parts of the Mother and Father! I  _ need it _ .” Mado leers. “GIVE IT TO ME!” 

Hinami stands tall for a beat, but just as suddenly as it started, all of the fight seems to drain out of her and the dual kagune retreats. 

“I can’t… I can’t do this… Father… Mother...” she cries, hugging her chest. 

Yume spares Hinami a concerned glance, but has to bring two tails to bear in a hasty block as Mado takes advantage of her distraction and Hinami’s retreat.  _ Fuck.  _ It’s been so long since she’s had to worry about defending others in a fight. And Mado seems to know it, too, sending strikes at Yume before switching at random towards Hinami and even Touka. It keeps her on the back foot, constantly diving to deflect blows meant for the other two instead of closing the gap like she normally would. Cuts bloom to life on her arms and legs and sizzle close just as quickly, but she can’t keep this up forever. 

_ C’mon Touka! _

Finally,  _ finally _ , Touka pulls herself to her feet and hauls Hinami away. 

As they round the corner and finally out of range of his long quinque, Yume grins beneath her mask. She might not have her katana, but she’s never needed it to be deadly. Despite a past life as a human, an even tempered one at that, her second childhood bred a monster. 

Crouching with a snarl building on her lips, Yume feels a low rumble building in her chest. Across from her, Mado digs his heels into the gravel and raises an eyebrow with a smirk. 

“Believe it or not, little rat, but the higher ups want you brought in alive.” Mado says, eyes alight with madness, “I don’t know what they want with the  _ nogitsune _ , but I can harvest your kakuhou while you  _ rot _ in Cochlea!” 

His words drive a shard of ice through her chest and she almost freezes under the weight of it. But with a roar she shoves aside her fear and launches at the old man. She will  _ not  _ go back. Twisting around the segmented blade, Yume ignores as it slices a line of pain across her shoulder and retaliates with a slash across his thigh. Oh, she wants to tear his fucking heart out. 

Yume feints left and then throws her weight forward, slamming a tail into the handle of the blade. It shatters in his grip. If anything, Mado looks pleased as he tosses the broken weapon aside and she has a moment of clarity, of  _ oh shit _ , before the long petals of  _ Fueguchi Two _ wrap around her torso and  _ squeeze.  _

The pressure is immense and she wheezes as her ribs crack. One rib snaps and pierces her lung. Yume automatically tries to take in a breath and with a ragged gasp she can feel her heart stutter at the pain. She is treated to a flash of Mado’s leering grin before the quinque is slamming her against the gravel. White explodes across her vision and for a moment Yume contemplates her life choices. 

It would be so easy to let her rage and anger take over. 

A little voice at the back of her head whispers,  _ why not.  _

She’s always been a berserker, a brawler at heart. She might temper her nature with the cold steel of a blade and the learned cunning of a fox, but at the heart of things she was meant to  _ rip and tear. _ It was what she was raised for, after all. In the Garden, ghouls like her were the grease that moved the wheels of her superior’s progress. A resource to be ground up and bled dry. Nothing but an attack dog, lesser than her half-human half-brothers and sisters. And so she learned to  _ bite.  _

Everything else was incidental, scraps of knowledge she was not meant for, but hoarded anyways. It wasn’t until she got funneled into V that she was allowed to learn more. Sword fighting, tactics, how to fucking  _ read.  _ She was still a weapon pointed at the Washuu’s enemies, but at least she was a well read one. Kaiko didn’t suffer fools. 

But Mado is a madman, devilishly unpredictable and wild at the best of times. At the same time, he’s insightful and shrewd. He’s been killing ghouls for years, fighting alongside fellow investigators too. He will recognize any attempts at subtlety, at strategy. What she needs is  _ power  _ and  _ brute strength. _ And so Yume sheds years and years of training and  _ lets go _ .

Her wrath is not the flame that burns. It’s like submerging into a cool bath, stepping out of her skin. Her thoughts slow, fears and worries and higher thinking dropping away one by one. And in its place, the beast she normally keeps under lock and key emerges. 

She tosses her mask to the side, uncaring if he sees her face. He’ll be dead soon enough. Crackling fills her ears as her kagune morphs and twists and slips over her eyes. Repeated cannibalism for over six years has consequences. 

Conscious thought fades.

—

This has been one huge clusterfuck of a night. Touka’s willing to admit that. But at the very least Hinami is safe (enough) and relatively okay. And despite telling him she’d only help him once, she managed to stop Kaneki from being consumed by his hunger once again. After stopping him from hurting Hide after his fight with Nishio, she didn’t think she would help him again. But seeing his despair at the thought of killing the investigator, something inside her softened at his conviction. It was… refreshing. Stupid and ignorant as hell, but in a nice way. 

When Renji showed up and immediately ignored them in favor of rushing past, Touka felt a little bad for forgetting that Yume was on her own back in the tunnel. 

Wincing at the pain in her side, Touka limps after Renji. She hears Kaneki gather up Hinami and then the whole group is heading after the older ghoul.

At the mouth of the tunnel, Touka frowns at the sounds emerging from within. Well, the lack of sounds of battle. All she can hear is a steady thumping, a sound that’s a little wet, a little muffled. 

_ Thud  _

_ Thud _

_ Thud _

She almost bumps right into Renji’s back when he stops dead at the sight of whatever’s in the tunnel. He throws an arm out and prevents Kaneki from stepping forwards. Feeling apprehensive, Touka peeks around his shoulder and holds back a gasp. 

The body of the investigator lies slumped on the ground, the damaged form of his quinque snaking across the gravel around him. Yume’s fox mask lays forgotten nearby. Crouched over him is the twisted form of whatever the fuck took over the other girl. Red, partially formed scales run over her shoulders and back, hunching her back. White plates of armor adorn the scaly skin and the two remaining tails of her kagune wave lazily in the air. Her arms are twisted by the transformation, huge claws grasping the investigator's hair and repeatedly slamming his head over and over against the ground. He’s already dead,  _ thank fuck.  _ Touka scrambles over to Kaneki and holds a hand over Hinami’s eyes. The rhythmic thumping ends with a terrible squelch as the skull finally smashes like a melon. 

When the monster turns its head, Touka gulps as its glowing gaze fixes on them. She can barely see Yume’s features below the strange three eyed mask that has formed over her face. 

“Only partial, good.” Renji murmurs. 

Partial what? 

Next to her Kaneki dry heaves and almost drops Hinami. 

A memory emerges, of words shared in the dark. She knows what this is. Touka lived on the streets before she was taken in by Yoshimura, she’s heard the ghost stories told only in the quietest whispers. Of ghouls who ate their own kind and grew twisted from it. 

_ Kakuja. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> howdy yall sorry for taking so long real life is a bitch. Anyways I'd like to think that if Mado didnt basically underestimate the girls in canon he would have been a waaay bigger pain in the ass to kill. Against three ghouls, one of whom is wanted by the ccg, I think he'd take the fight a bit more seriously. 
> 
> Thanks for reading guys. This fic is super self indulgent but I'm happy to share it with you all.

**Author's Note:**

> Will I ever stop writing si-oc fics or crossovers? The answer is no.


End file.
